The Melikian Center at ASU is co-presenting a talk by Victoria Lomasko, a graphic artist and writer born in Russia, who has lectured and written widely on graphic reportage.

She is author of the book, Other Russias, winner of the Pushkin House Prize for the Best Book in Translation 2018 (Thomas Campbell, translator), and co-author of the book, Forbidden Art, nominated for the Kandinsky Prize in 2010. Lomasko has also co-curated two major art exhibitions, The Feminist Pencil and Drawing the Court.

Other Russias -
"What does it mean to live in Russia today? What is it like to grow up in a forgotten city, to be a migrant worker or to grow old and seek solace in the Orthodox church?

For the past eight years, graphic artist and activist Victoria Lomasko has been travelling around Russia and talking to people as she draws their stories. She spent time in dying villages where schoolteachers outnumber students; she stayed with sex workers in the city of Nizhny Novgorod; she went to juvenile prisons and spoke to kids who have no contact with the outside world; and she attended every major political rally in Moscow.

The result is an extraordinary portrait of Russia in the Putin years -- a country full of people who have been left behind, many of whom are determined to fight for their rights and for progress against impossible odds. Empathetic, honest, funny, and often devastating, Lomasko's portraits show us a side of Russia that is hardly ever seen."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VICTORIA LOMASKO, a graphic artist and writer born in Russia, who has lectured and written widely on graphic reportage. She is author of the book, Other Russias, winner of the Pushkin House Prize for the Best Book in Translation 2018 (Thomas Campbell, translator), and co-author of the book, Forbidden Art, nominated for the Kandinsky Prize in 2010. Lomasko has also co-curated two major art exhibitions, The Feminist Pencil and Drawing the Court.